I put my clothes in with a new blue shirt and my clothes have blue blotches on them. How can I remove the blue dye?
Trish from Mastic, New York
Depending on the fabric and if the shirt is pure white and how long the stain has been sitting, this old school remedy works unless the shirt is silk and multicolor and the stain is a year old. It actually should be done the moment you find the stain but give it a shot.
Fill a pot big enough to hold the shirt, fill the pot with water and heat it on the stove to warm and almost boiling, then shut the flame off and add some bleach to the water (1/2 cup or so) and stir it in. Then place the shirt in the pot and stir the shirt around, the stain should disappear. Then rinse the shirt in cold water, ring it out, and put it through the wash alone with no other clothes. It should be fine. Good luck! (04/20/2007)
By Adele
I read this website yesterday after one of my blue shirts stained a brand new pair of white shorts. I went to JoAnn Fabrics and bought RIT Stain Remover in a white and pink box, and it is an amazing product. It got all the blue dye right out of the shorts. I was amazed and the product only cost $1.99. I will swear by this any day and I am a total believer and new promoter of this product. Use it! (07/18/2007)
By Lindsey
First I want to thank the person who suggested RIT, as it saved a good deal of the white clothing I turned blue! However, I also want to say that I would advise against using this product with colored clothing- it ruined my favorite pair of pink juicy sweats, and completely bleached out another pair of pants. But, be the RIT or the pants, they actually turned back to their original color after being turned pink by the RIT and then exposed to air. I have no idea if this was just that pair of pants and I got super lucky, but they are good as new thanks to air! (07/27/2007)
By Kendall
Okay, so I totally freaked when I washed my red pants with my gray ones, and I abruptly went to my computer (after drying my tears), and looked for any possible way of removing a color dye from a colored garment. Everything I found was talking about white stuff. Then I went to Winn-Dixie of all places (gags), and guess what?
By Angie
mrsa1126,
You are a genius! I tried using a little bleach in a pot of almost boiling water and it got out ALL of the blue that had ruined 2 of my really nice white shirts! In fact, one shirt was a white/pin-stripes and it worked like a charm and didn't ruin the pinstripes. (11/11/2007)
By hus9001
Thank You! I had a color bleed on an item I'd listed on ebay, and was about to try anything to get it out. Boiling water & bleach = immediately got it out! It was like magic! Simply amazing, and talk about cheap. (12/31/2007)
By Kathleen
I just washed a red dress that has white sleeves, they turned pink. If I use the bleach method would that bleach the red?
Editor's Note: Yes, it will bleach the red, too. I would try Oxiclean, it works well removing dye. Make sure to read the instructions making sure that the material won't be harmed by it. (04/17/2008)
By Paras
Loved the almost boiling water with bleach. Should have known better. I was trying to get brownie batter off the white and blue (navy) rug in the kitchen. Put it in with the whites (I had added ammonia to brighten, no bleach) didn't think it would hurt the blue. I had successfully tie dyed an entire load of whites.
I "cooked" the entire load of whites, worked like a charm, about 2-3 mins per garment. Fantastic, I'll never ruin my husband's long sleeve tees again (there were 3 brand new ones in the load). Thanks! This was fabulous. (04/22/2008)
By dana
I got blue splotches from a blue shirt on my new yellow tank top and a white hoodie. I put some stain and wash remover on the splotches waited for 20 minutes and then boiled some water. Even though the tank said wash in cold water, I mixed it in the boiling water and the stains came right out! I'm washing the hoodie now and hoping for the same result. (04/24/2008)
By Kristy
I accidentally washed a new navy t-shirt with a load of light colors. The navy bled into a yellow t-shirt and a white t-shirt. I used the bleach and almost boiling water technique (brought a pot of water to a near boil, added about 1/4 c bleach and dipped the t-shirts in the pot, took out quickly and rinsed). The navy dye came out of the yellow and white t-shirts immediately. Amazing! Thanks so much! (05/24/2008)
By Sandy J
I had an expensive jacket from Chicos that I got a couple of years ago. White cotton with colored embroidery. Now, don't ask me why I spent a chunk of $$ on the jacket and wouldn't spring for dry cleaning, but...the colors ran. I wore it just a little last summer, figuring the color smears weren't that noticeable. This spring, it bugged me, so I went searching for a solution. Tested the near-boiling water with both color-safe bleach and Oxy Clean. The Oxyclean worked much better. Put the jacket in a sink with warm water, added the Oxy-clean to the pot of hot water then dumped it on. Stirred it around with a wooded spoon for a minute or two, then ran it through a cold rinse cycle in the machine. All better! It looks like the embroidery is still just about as colorful. Thanks to everybody for the ideas! (05/31/2008)
I put new jeans from Talbots in a load of colored clothing. Most of the colors were very dark, like the jeans. Two exceptions were an old cotton nighty that was white with a flower print and a pink cotton shirt. The dye from the new jeans bled onto a very dark orange shirt, onto the pink shirt and dyed the nighty light blue. It may have bled onto the other dark clothing but it did not show up. I decided to try out the advice here with a measure of common sense.
I used the bleach in boiling water technique on the basically white nighty with good results. I bought Oxiclean at Costco and tried their soak instructions on the orange shirt. The color brightened considerably and the blue smudges faded almost to the point of not being visible unless you were specifically looking for them. The Oxiclean did not really help the blue on the lighter pink. So I decided to try the boiling water and bleach. This worked but with some reservations. I should have moved the shirt around a bit since some of the pink also got bleached out but unevenly. Most of the blue came out and I was okay with the result since this is a shirt for hanging out.
Given this experience, I would NOT try the chlorine bleach on a dark color. It will ruin the fabric. The other happy outcome is that I found I really liked the Oxiclean - it brightened the garments, it is cheaper than non-chlorine Clorox, and it left the clothes smelling like they had been freshly air dried. Finally, I am resolved to always wash new jeans, or any dark colored garment, a few times by themselves to make sure this never happens again! (06/29/2008)
By Gail
My boyfriend had just received 3 new Express shirts for his birthday. I washed them on cold together, not knowing that one would bleed onto another. I used the oxiclean with hot water method on the blue and white shirt. Worked wonders! My boyfriend will still be able to wear that shirt to my brother's wedding in a few days. (08/04/2008)
By Bridgette
Thanks guys! Washed a new off-white shirt with navy pinstripes alongside a new pair of dark jeans. Came out of wash with dark blue blotches all over the shirt like an ink leak (My own fault really). Bought a color-run fixing product immediately and washed again following instructions - 0% success!
Found your comments above in a panic and tried the boiling water and bleach suggestion. Worked perfectly! I used ordinary household bleach and dipped each blotch on the shirt into the water for about a minute. Thanks so much for the suggestion! (08/31/2008)
By Barry
Accidentally I washed grey new slacks with my ultra-white blouse that I wear as a legal secretary. My white undergarments along with the white blouse turned very grey and dingy. I knew of a product I used years ago to get color-bleeding out, but didn't want to spend the money. Then I found this site with the idea of bleach and boiling water. I dipped the blouse in, and voila! It was ultra-bright again. As were the undergarments. Great idea that 'saved' my white work outfit. (09/03/2008)
I put my clothes in with a red jacket and my clothes have red blotches on them. Thank you for the advice of bleach and almost boiling water. To my surprise my neutral colored clothes did not bleach out. I do have two favorite jackets that I am going to use Oxiclean, but so far this has worked great! Thank you! (09/14/2008)
By Mary.
I washed two of my toddler's new shirts, one was white with blue on it and the other was pink. The pink one has white on it also. They both now have a pink tint all over. How can I get this out without ruining the other part of the shirts? Any help would be great!
Editor's Note: For similar stains, I've used oxiclean. It did a good job removing red embroidery thread dye from a white shirt. Worth a try. (10/04/2008)
By gel
I washed my brand new Talbots light khakis with new rust colored place mats. DANG! I tried everything from oxyclean to RIT color remover. Nothing worked. I read some of these comments about bleach and boiling water. There were no instructions, so as a last resort, I dumped about a 1/4 cup of bleach into about 5 quarts of water. I boiled them right in the middle of preparing Thanksgiving dinner. No kidding! The pants weren't in the water a minute before I could see that the pink tint was gone, absolutely gone! I took them out right away. Again, they were exactly the color they were when I bought them! I then washed and dried them as I would regularly. They look fantastic. Thanks for the idea. (11/27/2008)
By WerdNerd
It worked a treat, I accidentally soaked a brand new pair of black lace knickers in with my other white favorite lingerie, what a mess. I had only just washed one pair of white lace panties for the first time buying them so I was aghast. The boiling water and small amount of bleach definitely works. Thank you very much. (12/07/2008)
By chrissie
Like many, I was hesitant to try the boiling water. Well, it really is like magic. I had accidentally washed a blue pair of socks with my whites. I thought that about 9 tank tops, 2 dish towels and a number of other things were simply ruined. I tried the boiling water/bleach suggestion and was amazed. Kept each item in for about 1 minute and they were sparkling white. In fact, just for the heck of it, I tried a white pillow case that was somewhat dingy. It looked like new. Whoever came up with this is genius. (12/31/2008)
By Miles
Thank you! I tried the boiled water with small amount of Bleach, it's just like magic! Not back to 100% of the original, but good enough and able to wear them again when going out. (01/12/2009)
By scootergal
AWESOME! My dress is white on top/navy corduroy bottom. Threw it in the washing machine and the navy dye ran onto the white. :( Was so upset as it was a brand new piece. Chanced upon this site yesterday and tried it straight when I got home last night.
I put the blue end in another pail, and soaked the white top part in boiling water & lots of bleach (probably not so much is needed, but I wanted results). Soak it for 3 hours and the blue stains are gone! Wheeee, thanks a mil :) (01/19/2009)
By gracie
Caution: Boiling clothes in water expanded the less expensive fabrics (like hollister tee shirt). (07/02/2009)
By Mom
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